At Cruxy we believe your CDD should uncover hidden value and drive investor returns. The typical CDD process lacks imagination and depth. It is a sense check against a generic set of expectations you have for an acquisition, or a new addition to a portfolio. Providers typically have little skin in the game, and take…

Last week our CEO, Carrie, and Senior Strategist Lily took to the stage at the first SaaStock Local to dissect common product market fit myths. These are the usual suspects for firms who think they have nailed product market fit, but in reality, they haven’t: Your sales team solves a different problem in every meeting When asked who you sell to, you…

The Role: As a Senior Strategist, you will have responsibility for client projects and the ability to shape the deal pipeline from day one. This role will suit strategic thinkers and team players with an entrepreneurial streak, who can execute work with rigour and confidence. We value intellectual curiosity and expect applicants to have a…

When was the last time you killed a deal? The ‘lizard brain’ is the main source of resistance, rooted in our survival instincts. We shy away from killing things we believe in and seek comfort in numbers; the pipeline is no exception. The belief that you are busy and doing everything you can to grow your top-line…

The explosion of growth from Series A to B requires fuelling your top line through new revenue streams, new markets and experimentation with new commercial models. But it is natural to get distracted by endless strategic opportunities as you scale. 40% of CEOs claim their strategy has failed due to a breakdown in execution. There are two usual suspects: You are…

We know a lot about decks. They are sometimes useful to synthesise ideas and display evidence. But they do not drive change. Over 30m PowerPoint presentations are made every day, a significant number by consulting firms. But what do they actually deliver? A deck can: Generate ideas Showcase evidence Make people listen A deck does not: Kickstart change Drive…

For many companies, 80% of business comes from 20% of clients. Conversion rates for tier 1 clients should reflect the time spent on each deal. Striking a balance between project value and time investment is critical. With the right focus, this is achievable. But beware the Danger Zone and the Risk Zone. The Risk…

Saying you ‘sell to financial services’ is a broad term. One firm could sell exclusively to quant hedge funds below £100m AUM. Another could sell to tier 1 banks with strong fixed income desks. These broad & generic terms lead to a lack of focus, intelligence & lead fintechs to treat everyone the same. This…

Cognitive bias. Deviation from logic and reason that influence decision processes. Pure human nature. Bias has the potential to affect every decision you take. Your interest in a sector. Your faith in a product. Your belief in a team. Benjamin Graham once said, “The investor’s chief problem – even his worst enemy – is likely to…

We asked participants at the LSE Elite Programme if just 80% of their execution was in line with their focus as a firm. No one raised their hand. Your one overarching goal, whether that’s a strategic acquisition, an IPO, or a £1bn valuation, should dictate every action you take. Losing focus in execution, such as…

Have you confused product-client fit with product-market fit? At Series A, true product-market fit must be proven. However, this is harder said than done. Many secure a few big wins & lull themselves into a false sense of security. Product-market fit & product-client fit are 2 different things. There are more than 350 major financial institutions in…

Opportunities to grow your revenue manifest in numerous ways. Once product-market-fit and serious market traction is achieved, extreme focus is required to determine the correct route to grow your sales with minimum opportunity. If you have ten hours to chop down a tree, spend 8 hours sharpening the axe. There are three ways to unpick…

RegTechs and banks: partnering to improve the status quo The RegTech industry is growing at a prolific rate. In the last 12 months, over $1.2 billion has been invested in the industry. The RegTech market is expected to grow at an annualised growth rate of ~25% between now and 2023. Yet, the RegTech landscape remains…

The importance of planning ahead… Growth – it is the one word that excites all we work with. But, when moving so quickly, it is easy to lose sight of the ‘why’. The unifying goal that translates into a business plan. Losing sight of this might not hurt the founders who have a focus &…

Internationalising a tech firm is something many CEOs & Founders dream of. They see the endless travel, complexity & meetings as a price worth paying for the reach that they can achieve. It is between Series A & B, many tech firms begin to glance East & West as they consider their next big opportunity. But, for many, this drives…

Too many B2B SaaS companies rely on cost-based or competitor-based pricing. This leaves money on the table, with companies misinterpreting the value that their customers are receiving. Instead, understanding the value drivers of your customer base should be viewed as integral to the pricing structure. It is imperative to be able to…

We work with a lot of Tech firms selling to the Financial Services industry. Those who sell to FS firms know that “the sales cycle can be long & conversion rate low”. But is that true? Is it, in fact, a limiting belief? Selling to large enterprise clearly doesn’t have to be a ‘dark art’.…

In the Tech industry – market presence is everything. As the saying goes – ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Our ethos of ‘paying it forward’ bleeds through everything we do. The events we attend. The people we meet. The companies we introduce. We are a relatively small team at Cruxy…

It was a joy to intern with Cruxy & Company, who relentlessly drive real change by transforming insight into action. Having finished my first year at King’s College London studying Spanish and Management, I have learnt many new incredible skills that I can bring into the next year of University. I have enjoyed getting…

It is no surprise that, in an industry struck by inefficiency & archaic processes, being overly optimistic when deciding on a solution is the status-quo. Willis Re & CB insights reported that of the $724 million of insurtech funding in Q1 2018, only one transaction was delivered by an incumbent. The VC-dominant investment landscape is…

August is a time for great reflection. The city seems dead, dry & desolate. It is through that back to school-like anticipation in the lead up to September that we can all take a step back and think about what it will take to end 2018 feeling like we gave it our all. For me,…

Creating your pricing on a napkin from day 1 is a memory start-up founders reminisce over as they reflect on how the business was built. The truth is, no matter how big the firm gets, pricing today is still largely based on management hunches, firm overheads, competitors’ moves & the pressures of sales targets. In…

The common sales pitch of AI is the potential to automate tasks, and let humans do what they do best: being inefficient. Everyone has heard of AI, deep learning and machine learning in some way, shape or form. Businesses are racing to jump on this bullet train and investors are hungry for the latest bit of…

Having a detailed & dynamic plan is integral to any successful business – even if every milestone is not hit. So…why are you actually writing a business plan? If you are writing a business plan purely to sell your business and management team to potential investors – stop what you are doing instantly. Most…

Failure to convert sales targets comes with a multitude of excuses. The market doesn’t want it. The procurement process slows everything down. We haven’t got enough resources on the ground. This excuse-culture is stopping you from facing facts and dealing with the core of the issue. The Bridge Group identified that sales productivity is the #1 challenge for…

Another week for Cruxy & Company immersed in the world of Technology. Our CEO, Carrie Osman, was part of two vigorous panels at the Blockchain Summit and Metro Bank Tech Breakfast, discussing everything from Blockchain application to what SMEs value from banking providers. Beyond that, Carrie Osman featured in the Guardian alongside Cruxy friends Charlotte…

On Monday, Cruxy & Company took to the Digital Festival in Cardiff to question global industry experts – from Silicon Valley, Paris, Barcelona & beyond – on the latest Tech trends. Alexandra Cheung chaired a compelling panel discussion discussing the data economy & how digital products & services are likely to be personalised in the future.…

Cruxy & Company partnered with Baker McKenzie on Thursday evening to dig into what it takes to navigate the FinTech/Incumbent partnership. Carrie Osman chaired the discussion, & the evening was full of punch, rigour and opinion from Cathy Lyall of Seismic Foundary. Greg Michel of Tech Nation, Sue McLean of Baker McKenzie & Brad Van…

So, you want to expand your business into the United States, the land of the free, the home of the brave? Good luck… Chasing the American Dream (particularly if you aren’t American) is a fantasy that has entrapped aspiring, would-be CEOs and entrepreneurs for years. For every one successful entry, there are four that have…

At CRUXY, we believe that change comes from fighting the status quo and pushing against mediocrity which saturates the market. Our interns begin doing this from the very start. The traditional strategy consultancy model is dead, and you should be part of reshaping the future. Be a part of something bigger Nina Mohanty, Business Development…

2017 was the year of Cryptocurrencies & ICOs. Bitcoin hit a record high at $19k & $4bn was raised in ICOs in 2017 alone. We all know the poster-children of ICOs – from Brave generating £35mil in 30 seconds, to Filecoin raising $200 mil in 1 hour. So what’s an ICO & why does it…

In 2018, we are at a RegTech inflexion-point, where Frost & Sullivan claim the global RegTech market will reach $6.45 billion by 2020. This growing success means RegTech is ripe for saturation. You have built a transformative product, grown a powerful team & gained traction. How do you scale your RegTech to withstand the pressures of a…

After a week of events in which some fundamental questions seemed to be avoided, we plucked 3 areas in which we think it is time to face-in. 1.Is Pricing the un-recognised blocker for scaling your tech firm? When asking firms their blockers to scale, panellists answered in unison: talent, smart funding, partnerships, marketing. Pricing is under-leveraged,…

WeWork hit a 20bn valuation in its most recent funding round which left many scratching their heads on the basis of its valuation. How can a firm which owns no real estate or other tangible assets incur such a high valuation? How does WeWork’s valuation compare to industry standards? WeWork’s valuation is 20x its 1bn…

In today’s technological climate, most people can copy your tech within 6 months. To scale up, getting lost in the weeds must be avoided, but this can only be done by understanding the CRUX of what it means to scale. Not just to scale but to scale in a focussed, pointed and deliberate manner.…

Globally, in Q2’17, VC-backed companies raised $40.1b across 2985 deals. Due diligence was a layer implemented in every single one of those deals. Due Diligence is the lifting of the hood – a chance for Investors to look around inside, poke, challenge & see whether the business they perceived from a deck & set of…

This morning, CRUXY were featured in City AM discussing what women in tech want to teach young girls to close the gender gap within the tech industry from the roots up. On Tuesday, the 31st of October, CRUXY teamed up with I Can Be to host a workshop inspiring 10, 7-8 year old girls, to realise…

Emerge from the weeds ‘Are we all in the weeds right now?’. This opening question sent shockwaves round the audience. Nearly everyone is culpable of meandering away from their point of focus, paying attention to the shiny opportunities but not the gritty, often tough, delineated course to achieving their vision. Many SaaS businesses are too…

CRUXY took to Web Summit 2017 to see where top investors are putting their money in 2018. AI is not a fad, businesses need to adhere to get ahead Investors are realising that AI is not a fad, but a new foundation on which tech firms and businesses should be leveraging themselves. AI is a…

ICOs are disrupting the classic VC model, and have raised more than $350M in each of the last five months. Here are 3 things CRUXY learned from listening at WebSummit about ICO’s from the investor’s point of view. Regulation will stagnate the benefits of ICOs From an investor’s point of view, ICOs allow more fluidity,…

We believe it is vital to bring women to the forefront of business and the technology industry by asking the tough questions to drive change. That is why, on Tuesday, Cruxy led a group of ten, 7 to 8 year-old girls, to the heights of Level39 in the FinTech hub of London in partnership with…

The fundamentals to growth: good growth vs bad growth, the endless pivot, measuring the wrong thing – it is time to face the fact good growth is the ultimate challenge & demands more thinking about business models & strategies of the past. Too often, scale-ups neglect proven strategic models in favour of endless pivoting. At…

The path to success is strewn with the corpses of overhyped technologies By Sophia Halberstam, Associate Agitator at Cruxy & Co | Oct 04, 2017 | TechWorld On one side there are hundreds of cutting edge adtechs: the CEOs have an insatiable business drive, the technology is MIT-brain powered and this is a $540 billion…

We’re excited, humbled and proud to have been nominated, let alone shortlisted in the Entrepreneur category for the Women of the Future award. We’ll know more in a few weeks time, but for now our cheeks hurt a bit from our oversized grins!

To say BlueApron has had a summer of discontent is an understatement. Since IPO in June, Blue Apron’s share price has fallen 36% from its IPO price of $10. COO Matt Wadiak has since stepped down from the company & C-suite members are being reshuffled as we speak. So what led to the demise of…

OK so the title may be a little brash, especially when we know some people in the tech arena getting this VERY right… but the point is that we still meet huge numbers of people underestimating the gritty work involved in such a long and complex sell. The topic of selling to banks is always…

At CRUXY&CO we meet lots of people who are obsessed with short-term tactics & vanity metrics. They think that the world of content marketing is a new discipline – an unknown for which they must hire a millennial & throw out the old rule book. I am delving into this topic with the amazing team…

Back in June, Cruxy made headlines when Carrie Osman, our Chief Provocateur sat down on BBC Business to discuss UBER’s toxic demise. Our follow up piece provided further insight into why we thing UBER is crumbling. If you missed the interview, you can watch it below.

European CEO’s article from July features a series of stories of times when it would have been easier to just do it yourself. In this column, Pete Wise speaks with Carrie Osman about a failed attempt at sending £800 worth of reindeer shaped biscuits to a client for Christmas. Unfortunately the PA at the time…

Our Chief Provocateur was recently featured alongside our Chairman in a Forbes article entitled ‘Family Ties: The Key To Running A Successful Business With Your Mom Or Dad’. The piece written by Alison Coleman highlights the ups and downs of working with family, but ultimately how Cruxy works as well as it does because of…

In June, our Chief Provocateur, Carrie Osman was named as one of TechWorld’s notable women to speak at your next tech event. The list, compiled by Charlotte Lee sought to bring to light an under-represented sample of women in the tech industry who are gaining prominence in the industry. The list included 310 UK women…

Written by Lily Covington on her experience as an intern at Cruxy&Co When I left university and was propelled into the real world, I found myself faced with two options. One was a three-month internship with the security of a job at the end. My interviewer explained that given my background of studying philosophy, I…

A recent publication by Inc. highlighted the 5 best pieces of advice from founders that have made it on to their ‘Inc 5000’ list at least 10 times. So makes these founders so wise? Are they worthy of having the BEST advice? Lets take a look… Carey Smith, CEO of Big Ass Solutions “When I…

By Sam Evans, EOS Venture Partners As the insurance industry enters a period of profound change, we at Eos use a concept called the 20/20 dynamic to illustrate the point: On a conservative basis, we believe most insurers risk losing at least 20% of their business to disruption. On the flip side, for those that embrace…

Why you’re not selling: most stake holders don’t care about the intricacies of your technology Many tech founders still carry the attitude that if you’re not from a technical background, you fail to understand their “business”. This is why many entrepreneurs fail to find their product market fit & commercialise their business. It’s one thing…

Tuesday morning’s Artificial Intelligence Academy 2017 in the aid of FinTech week examined the impact the rise of AI will have on global work forces and questioned the ethical-legal landscape of increased implementation. It is abundantly clear from the series of talks that AI is extensively growing, or ‘having a moment’ as Peter McBurney pointed…

Cyber attacks use to be treated with irreverence – they seemed distant & intangible, myths relegated to the back pages. But now attacks are of increasing frequency. They are graver & their impact is palpable. The recent WannaCry & Petya attacks prove our vulnerability is being exploited & practically ridiculed. The threat is unequivocal so…

The more firms, CEOs and investors I meet, the more I see the debilitating nature of fear. Here are the top 5 usual suspects – the CRUX of which seems to be fear: Unwillingness to paint a future for fear of not achieving it Reliance on the past, the model, the known & the ‘market…

Cultural pollution flows from the top down With #deleteuber trending, Travis’ enforced resignation & the firing of over 20 employees in the last month alone, it’s clear that the supposed foundations of the business are well & truly splintered. Uber’s site states “don’t just find your place, create it” but how are employees meant to…

Our top 5 provocative insights from London Tech Week 1 Who are you blaming? 23% of business that fail, blame the team, & those are only the ones who admit it. 80% ownership & 20% relentlessness are the key components of a powerful, driven & strategically aligned business. 2 Is the UK void of focus…

Technology has been undoubtedly booming over the last few years – this has been no different in the Chinese market. China has had more than $110bn worth of tech M&A deals in the past 2 years. The Chinese economy is the second largest in the world – it’s no surprise tech giants like Google, Facebook…

The importance of challenge in an era of disruption “The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.” – Warren Bennis At a time when the word ‘disruptive’ is thrown around more liberally than it should be, these words ring particularly true. In recent times, ‘disruptors’ have been put on pedestals of ever-increasing size,…

February kicked off with a day of provocation and challenge at the Robo-Investing 2017 conference. Led by UBS SmartWealth, Moneyfarm & WealthWizard, the event delved into the depths of robo-advisory; from challenging the current business models to analysing further potential for technology and market progression. Why robo-advisory? Robo-advisory has taken over from the distributed ledger…

WHAT IS CULTURE? There is an ever-growing focus on culture — it was even Merriam Webster’s most popular word of 2014. It is rooted in the Latin “colere”, a horticultural word that, at its core, means to cultivate, to tend, and to guard. But what is it? Some say it’s what happens when you’re not looking; others suggest…

What is it that drives businesses to constantly blast their message to the market? It often seems that ‘the more you say, the better’. From white papers to content, press releases to conference slots… the lure of being published, being seen and PR are becoming the lifeblood for firms. What does this say about you…

WHY WASTE TIME SAYING SOMETHING THAT MEANS NOTHING? Are you trying to articulate a message that engages different industry verticals? This can be challenging for most businesses and can often seem impossible when there’s so much to say. Getting it right from day one means you will hit home with your desired audience in a…

Disintermediation or a FinTech Mirage? The advent of BlockChain has polarised the technoscenti more than any other technology since the internet itself came to prominence over 20 years ago. If adopted widely, it could sound the death knell for financial and other intermediaries and revolutionise not just finance but all provenance-based transactions. It could be…

How do you know whether an opportunity is worth seizing? Are you overwhelmed by the relentless wave of of opportunities and innovations? Often we perceive so many as growth drivers that we struggle to turn them down. How you choose to focus resources defines how strategic you are. We’re not talking about a page on…

How often do you think about BUSINESS KARMA? DO YOU BELIEVE ‘WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND’ WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR BUSINESS & NETWORK? How much energy, time and attention do you put into personal relationships? How often do you have people suggesting they ‘take a cut’ of every introduction they make? Does that reflect how you…

CAN YOU ALWAYS MEASURE THE THINGS THAT MATTER? Ethos, mindset, small magic touches – What is the ROI of the intangibles that can make a difference? Time is money. We’ve heard it a million times. So how does this mindset lead you to behave when it comes to ROI? We believe every pound you spend…

What does it take to go from business to brand? The 5 fundamentals that will make it happen. We talk a lot about the power of an ethos driven business. It doesn’t just come from a nice logo, fancy website and glossy marketing brochures that many companies think is their ‘brand’. It comes from the…

Go slow, to go fast. Have you fallen into the trap of spinning, where action is what you value most? Do you feel like the faster you move the more effective your business will be? When businesses first start out, they all aim to provide an amazing service, the best quality product, and the ultimate…

Change is the only constant… So why do we resist it so much? It is all too easy to be become complacent and comfortable with ‘the way we’ve always done it.’ After all, it took a lot of effort to get where you are today, so why not just sit back, relax and enjoy? You…

Are you trying to be all things, to all people? Choose your dream clients & fire the ones that prevent you from delivering the right story to others. – SETH GODIN When someone asks ‘who do you really want‘ as a customer, is your answer ‘we want to sell to everyone’? Do you hesitate to…

What it takes to create a consumer-centric solution It starts with the customer. What are their needs, wants and desires? What challenges are they facing? What would make their life easier? These are standard questions to answer when deciding on a new product or service. But it takes more than consumer insight to drive the…